


Impostor V. Sleep

by Ealasaid



Series: A Human Condition [4]
Category: 1917 (Movie 2019), Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Aliens, Cuddling & Snuggling, Empathy, Fluff, Gen, Impostors are shapeshifters, Kissing, M/M, POV Multiple, Platonic Cuddling, Purring, Sleepy Cuddles, Standalone, Telempathy, physical affection, vague Blakefield, vague Joefield, vague Richfield
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 23:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30012579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ealasaid/pseuds/Ealasaid
Summary: Schofield (Will) is an Impostor Adopted by Humans.  He learns many things, like how to Sleep without Nightmares, how to Entertain by Purring, and, also, when Not To Use A Safeword.
Series: A Human Condition [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088822
Comments: 7
Kudos: 6





	Impostor V. Sleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [writeyourownstory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/writeyourownstory/gifts).



> This is literally the (unfinished) original fluff I drabbled for writeyourownstory in discord that led to the entire series. It's never going to fit plausibly -- the boys encountered Character Development -- but it's still fun :>

Will likes watching Ben Sleep. His face is still and filled with Peace and he sometimes makes soft noises and wiggles in tiny increments as though settling into a more comfortable position in a way that makes Will feel Happy. Happy, and a little wistful; Will wishes he could Sleep like that. 

Sleep is important for Humans. Will has tried it a few times, but it does not seem to work for him -- the nightmares do not cease to come at night and they Scare This Body awake.

Ben likes Sleep, though. Even without touching him, Will can feel the calm/content/zzzZZZzzz radiating off of him. It is very soothing, so soothing he . . . really cannot resist it like he ought to . . . 

(Ben has mentioned it is weird when Will watches him Sleep and Will should Respect his Preferences.)

\--Damn. Ben is awake. He starts a little, jerking in his bunk, then sags when he sees it is Will -- too late. Will feels a surge of guilt: Ben has asked him Not To, but here Will is, Doing It Anyway.

"Christ, Will," Ben says, speech imprecise from the lack of coordination Sleepiness induces. "Told you not to do that." 

"Sorry," Will says, still staring at him. 

Ben squints his eyes at Will. It seems counter-intuitive -- Human eyes are not that good. In the dark, he should be opening them wider to catch more light so that he can see Will better. Ben insists on having a small "night light" on in the corner, which he claims is there for Will, too -- maybe Ben should go to a medical practitioner. (Would the scanner diagnose that?)

"Right," Ben says, still squinting. He half gets up and starts moving backward, making space on the bunk. "Get in." 

Will blinks. "What?" 

"Come on, get in," Ben repeats patiently. Conspicuously, he pulls the blanket back so that the mattress is clear and waves his hand, indicating that Will should Make Himself Fit in that space. "I know you can sleep."

"I -- my nightmares are . . . disconcerting," Will replies hesitantly. When this does not dissuade Ben, Will acquiesces, moving carefully. He sits first on the edge, which makes it a simple matter to contort to fit in the narrow bunk. He is pressed up against Ben far sooner than he expects and he inches away to give Ben More Space -- and nearly topples off the edge. 

Ben catches him with an arm around his waist, fingers carelessly flipping up under Will's shirt and brushing Will's skin beneath. He is very strong. Though Will is heavier than he is, Ben has no trouble pulling him in bodily, snugging him tightly so that all of Will's back is pressed to Ben's front.

"Oh," Will says inanely, only half-paying attention to any of it; with the brush of skin on skin, his mind is suddenly buzzing with **_calm/content/zzz_ ** from where Ben is touching him. It is . . . very hypnotic. "I-- but-- you gave me a bed--" 

"You're not using it," Ben says reasonably and **_pleased/smug/fond_ ** rolls through Will So Powerfully he finds he hums. His body appears to have forgotten what Bones are. 

Ben flips the blanket expertly over Will when Ben is satisfied and wriggles with those little increments that signals he is making himself comfortable. Will finds himself mirroring this, mostly for the Joy of Movement, feeling an echo of the sleepy delight that Ben experiences.

Ben's arm tightens around him and Something **Deeper** rolls through Will, making him shiver. "Shhh," Ben says, voice strangely raspy. He slides his palm up under Will's shirt and Will goes entirely Limp with the **_Contentment._ **

While he is in this state, Ben does something that is Soft Pressure on the back of Will's Neck. Will feels Ben's Breath make his hair move and Ben hums, a drowsy harmony. "Good night, Will," he says, dozing already.

"Good night," Will slurs softly in an echo, and follows Ben into Sleep despite his Best Intentions.

\--::o::--

They are all taking a moment to themselves around the water cooler in Administration when Ben comes out with it. 

"You're joking," Joe says. 

"Wait, really?" Tom asks, intrigued. 

"No, I'm not, and yes, really," Ben says, sounding delighted -- at what, Joe cannot imagine. "He purrs like a cat when you do it. It's the happiest noise I've ever heard." 

The look Joe levels with him is filled with suspicion. Will is an _alien_ and, in a lot of ways, a very innocent one; and Ben is well-known for his licentiousness. "Ben," he says, warningly. 

"No, no, I'm serious!" Ben insists, raising his hands to emphasize his point. "Look, he never sleeps on his own, right? He has all those nightmares, and I mean. You know what his life was like before us . . ." 

In unison, the three of them wince. Joe isn't sure what Ben and Tom are remembering, but Joe will never forget that juxtaposition of how flatly, how calmly Will had asked that he be "terminated" if the other Impostor succeeded in getting Will voted out at the next meeting, though Will was otherwise crying in such a heartbreakingly human fashion that Joe had been moved to hugging him even knowing how _other_ Will was. He can't begin to imagine what Will has done in the past that would make him ask something like that.

Ben only pauses briefly before he continues, briskly, with "--anyway. He'll sleep if you spoon him with some skin contact; I think he's riding my emotions. And he loves it!" 

"Huh," Joe says. He is coming up with a blank, here, in the way that tells him he is still struggling to come to terms with something that . . . seems like it should make sense. 

"Oooo!" Tom says, excited. "I want to see. Can I sleep with him next?" 

"Oh my _God,"_ Joe bursts out, reflexively horrified. "You can't just ask that!" 

Tom scowls. "It's not like I want to have sex with him," he reminds Joe with long-suffering patience. "I just want to _sleep_ with him. LITERAL sleep!" 

"That's not helping," Ben informs Tom as Joe tries really, really hard not to choke on his own tongue on Will's behalf.

Somehow, though, Tom gets his way. Joe hates it when Tom gets his way, even if Joe is usually the one who is enabling it to happen, but this time, it turns out to be precisely what Ben says it will be: absolutely adorable. 

"Hang on," Joe whispers into his mobile device. "Let me take a little visual and send it to you." 

"I've seen him already, I can hear him from here--" Ben responds, crabby because Joe wired him in the middle of the night and likely woke him up. 

"Shhh," Joe hisses. Carefully, he holds up his mobile and films it, briefly: Tom and Will tangled up like those eight-limbed aliens from Thalassa-IX. Tom wears that familiarly imbecilic look of sleeping little brothers everywhere, snoring gently; Will has his head tucked under Tom's, a soft smile wreathing his face, and -- Ben was right -- purring. 

It is a nice hum, soft, that sort of throbs a bit -- rather like an older but well-kept ship's engine if Joe is any judge. And it is loud enough to rival Tom's star-logger impression. Joe would think it would be enough noise to keep him awake through any amount of soporifics, but even filming it is -- it's a nice sound, really. Will's weird purr and Tom's familiar snore is apparently exactly the frequency of white noise Joe needs to hear for his brain to start shutting down. 

He sends the clip to Ben. "See?" Joe whispers into the vocal sensor. "It's not just spooning, it's literally anything." 

Ben is silent for a beat. "Okay," he says. "So, I'm going to go back to sleep now . . ." 

_"Goddamnit Ben, you're the one who told_ us _about it!"_

\--::o::--

Tom sighs, annoyed, and throws himself in his bed with -- okay, more force than is necessary, but _come on!_ He thought the next time Will spent the night with him and Joe, he'd get the chance to cuddle their alien. Tom's better at it, anyway, Joe even took a vis* of it! 

Unfortunately, though, Joe has claimed it is _his_ turn to sleep with their resident cuddle monster-cum-crewmate. _Rude._ (Okay, fair, but still rude. Tom is Will's favorite, everyone knows this.) So it is Joe who is settling into the narrow lower bunk with Will, their voices a soft murmur as the two of them negotiate the space. 

Tom will freely admit he is sulking. He's not even sure _why,_ he just -- y'know -- feels like the throwaway mistress. Will and Tom have a longer relationship than Will and Joe, it's _really_ not fair-- 

\--there is a touch on his shoulder. Tom grumpily looks over his shoulder and sees Will, clearly standing on the edge of Joe's bunk, looming well above the edge of Tom's.

Tom forgets his grievances in a second and rolls over. "Will?" 

Will smiles at him with all the fondness of Joe and Ben combined -- mouth wide, eyes crinkling. "'Love you," he says, leaning in with grace, and presses a kiss to Tom's forehead, cupping Tom's cheek briefly with one hand. Then he is swaying away and looking down, concentrating, and slips back into Joe's bunk with a compact _thump_ that startles a laugh from Joe. 

Tom blinks, and blinks again as Joe hits the lights switch. Afterimages of Will persist, happy and -- well -- happy. (Tom never claimed to be good with words, but seeing Will smile like that makes his heart leap.) 

Dreamily, Tom settles into his pillow with much better thoughts. Even the mattress feels softer. 

It is easy to ignore the murmuring and the rustling below him as Will and Joe continue to figure out how to fit one tall human and one tall alien into the same single bed. Someone hums, a very comforting sound, and Tom starts to drift--

\--and then the hum turns wet, and startled, and Tom knows this noise, he knows it -- what is it? He can't quite place it-- 

\--Tom freezes. He's not sure what that means about Humans -- that's how Will puts it --- but he stills where he is and hardly dares to breathe as the wet noise turns into Joe, urgently going "mmMPH!" 

There is a pop. "What??" Joe barks. A thumping noise follows. Tom squints over the side. His eyes have started to adjust to the darkness -- is that Joe on the floor? 

"Joe?" Will asks, voice uncertain. He sounds afraid. 

"Oi!" Tom snaps, ready to arms on Will's behalf. No one likes hearing him sound that way. "Joe, what're you doing?" 

"Me?? _ME?"_ Joe sounds frantic. "Will, what are _you_ doing?" 

"I -- you don't like it?" Will asks. "Oh, no. Uh. Sorry, I was supposed to tell you the safe word--" 

"What," Tom says. He feels cored, empty, spaced at these words -- the implications. 

"What," Joe echoes, equally flat. 

"Sorry," Will says again, sounding scared, horribly scared. "Sorry, you're supposed to say 'sassafras' if you don't want it, I forgot, sorry--" 

"Code Orange," Tom says, feeling faint, because even if he hasn't processed the enormity of what's going on, yet, he knows what it sounds like when Will is riding their emotions into a panic attack well enough. 

_Code Orange_ is what they use to remind themselves to breathe. It's a tricky thing, Impostor physicality/psychology, that seems so susceptible to their human emotions; but human stress is easily regulated when humans start to breathe steady, and on cue, Joe and Tom both inhale until their lungs inflate the whole way before they exhale, slowly. They repeat this for a few moments, until Will stops hyperventilating and is breathing along with them. 

Joe gets off the floor and flicks the light switch back on. "All right, Will," he says gently, because he is very good at that. "What was that, then?" 

Tom slithers out of his bunk and joins them both. Will is pressed to the wall and trying very hard not to seem so; Joe's hackles are up and he is desperately, desperately trying to smooth them. Tom fixes this the best way he knows how: throwing an arm over Will's shoulders and hugging him, one-armed and fierce. Joe follows his example. 

They bracket him with their bodies and slowly, very slowly, Will relaxes.

"Sorry," he repeats, but much more calmly. His breathing is easier and he leans into them both. "Ben was teaching me proper bed etiquette. I forgot to tell you about the safe word." 

There is a long moment of appalled silence. Tom doesn't know whether to laugh or cry, because -- of _course_ it's Ben. _Of course it's fucking Ben._

"Safe word?" Joe repeats, voice odd. 

"Yes," Will says, hunching a little under Tom's arm at whatever feelings he is picking up on. "I'm supposed to say it if I don't like what's happening." 

"Why is Ben teaching you about safe words?" Joe asks, softly. 

". . . because it feels good?" 

The following conversation is excruciatingly embarrassing. No, really, Tom is -- Tom is horrifically embarrassed that he is involved in it, and he isn't even _talking_ for _any_ of it. The long and the short of it seems to be that yes, Ben and Will have been snogging for the last few weeks they've been bunking together, but no, there hasn't been anything else, and yes, Will is fine with it, and no, Ben is not forcing him to do anything, but the actual worst bit -- the _worst bit_ \-- is when Will says: 

"I thought you wanted it, you felt interested," to Joe, as though Tom needs to know about his brother's sexual proclivities. _No, thank you!_

\--and then Will is wincing and leaning away from him and Tom reminds himself to fucking breathe, damnit.

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus: the reason Ben taught Will safewords is bc Will kept snuggling backwards on purpose. the resulting discussion went along the lines of:  
> Ben, flustered: "please stop"  
> Will, still subtly edging backward: "but you like it"  
> Ben, really flustered: "Will, please"  
> Will, dreamily: "it feels good"  
> Ben, thinking _oh my god we're so fucked:_ "hey, look, so . . . there's this Human etiquette about this . . ."


End file.
